Some things I learned from my Craigslist search:
- There are actually a lot of normal people that use Craigslist. You have to correspond a few times and see how they talk via email, but it is pretty easy to tell who is going to be normal and who is going to be a weirdo!
- Time frame is EVERYTHING. A few times, I went to apartments that wanted a year lease, and I told them I only wanted to commit to 3 months at the moment, but I would be more than happy to extend it if everything works out. NEWSFLASH: no one wants to do this process more than they have to! If you don't match with their time frame, don't even bother.
- It is impossible to hit everything on your list of apartment criteria. Though I did get a lot of the things I wanted (neighborhood, safety, time frame, building perks, [kind of] price range), I do with my roommates were cooler. I was debating between this apartment and one with an AWESOME roommate, and the apartment itself was nicer than the one I decided to take. However, this building is much nicer in general with a doorman and laundry in the basement. And it happens to be closer to my job which is good.
- Your introductory email is incredibly important and needs to be amazeballs. This is the first impression people get of you. If you come off like a boring stiff or essentially say nothing, you’re going to get no traction. Once I fixed my introduction email and included my a link to my Instagram account, I got so many more responses, and people already had me on high priority without even meeting me!
So, yea, I learned a lot from this experience. Hopefully when me and my friend look for apartments in a few months we can use some of this knowledge and get a KICK ASS place!
<3, Charlotte
